I've been stuck in a pure maintenance cycle for six months, and I'm starting to feel like a script-runner instead of an engineer. I'm trying to move into a senior-level job, and I worry about stagnating, but I'm not sure what to do. Is this a common issue with engineers who hope to level up?

If you were given one extra hour each workday that had to be spent on professional development, how would you use it? I’d probably split it between learning new tools and studying how other industries solve similar problems. How would you invest that time?

What’s the biggest productivity killer in your typical workday? For me, it’s usually constant context switching between unrelated tasks. It feels like losing momentum over and over again. What’s the biggest distraction where you work?

What task in your role would be the hardest to explain to someone outside your industry? For me, some of the work seems straightforward until you try explaining all the constraints, tradeoffs, and decision-making involved. What’s something people usually don’t understand about your job?

What’s one engineering “best practice” that you think is actually overused or applied in situations where it doesn’t add much value? For me, it’s excessive documentation on very small, low-risk changes. Documentation is important, but I’ve seen teams spend more time documenting simple fixes than implementing them. Where do you draw the line?